Stocks with Highest Dividend Yields in January 2019

For investors who like income with their stocks, nothing beats a good stock that offers a much higher-than-average dividend yield. Here, we bring you the S&P 500 stocks that offer the highest dividend yields as of January 2019.

What are Dividends and Dividend Yields?

Dividends are payments that a company distributes to shareholders out of its earnings, or profits. For some investors, dividends are a primary source of income and a reward for buying and holding dividend-paying stocks.

A stock’s dividend yield is simply the annual dividend dollar amount divided by the share price. It’s expressed as a percentage – the higher the better for investors. This simple equation provides a good apples-to-apples comparison of stocks with widely differing share prices and dividend payment amounts.

Even Dividend Stocks Fall

Before we get to the top dividend stocks, we should note the obvious here. Dividend investors still assume the big risk of their stocks declining in price. Oftentimes, losses in stock value far eclipse any income gained from dividends over a long period of time.

Case in point – of the five stocks we feature here, ALL of them have negative performance over a one-year period (as of the market close on Wednesday, 1/23/2019). While Iron Mountain is nearly flat at -0.31% over the year, Altria Group is down a whopping -37%. These losses are not specific just to dividend stocks, but investors should keep the risks in mind for any type of investing.

S&P 500 Stocks with the Highest Dividend Yields

With that said, here are the top dividend-paying S&P 500 stocks, each including: the current dividend yield, quarterly dividend amount, and 1-year performance (as of the market close on Wednesday, 1/23/2019):

IMPORTANT: The information above should not be construed as investment advice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell securities. Trading and investing in the financial markets involves substantial risk of loss, and may not be suitable for all investors.

Disclosure: At the time of this article’s publication, we have no position in any security or trade/investment mentioned, nor do we have any business relationship with any company whose stock may be mentioned.

As a momentum stock trader, Luke focuses mostly on strong market moves. Luke has been trading the markets since the early 2000s, but still gets excited by big movers. Whether a surging large-cap tech company or meteoric penny stock, Luke tracks and trades winners. A technical analysis purist, Luke authors many of our Top Stocks & ETFs reports. Contact Luke